Chip cards are used in many different applications. One field of use is authentication, for example, in the context of electronic completion of banking transactions (online banking) or also at cash machines (ATMs). Another field of use is the use as a key for an electronic lock, for example, a motor vehicle lock or a lock on a building entrance. Chip cards are also used for storage and proof of credit, for example, credit for the use of telecommunication service offers. Chip cards often contain a store, a simple logic unit or a processor. The processing capacity of the processor may, for example, be used for processing programme code which may, for example, be stored in a memory of the chip card and which can serve different purposes.
In order to be able to access the chip card and to make it usable as a result, it must be possible to access the chip card, that is to say, the memory, the logic unit or the processor thereof, from the outer side. The access may either be contact-based or be contactless. The contact-based communication may be advantageous in technical security terms in some application situations. Furthermore, the complexity for enabling contact-based communication may be less. For contact-based communication, the chip card may be provided on a surface with contacts. However, contactless communication may be more comfortable for the user of the chip card in some application situations. Examples of contactless communication technologies which may be controllable by a chip card include Bluetooth, RFID (radio-frequency identification) and near field communication (NFC). So-called dual interface chip cards exist which are equipped both for contact-based communication and for contactless communication.